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LeadershipNot yet confirmed elsewhere1 publisher3 min readPublished Updated

Sanderson investor with a 14% stake seeks a chair who can stay through a long turnaround

LBV Asset Management, which owns about 14% of Sanderson Design Group, is pushing to remove Dame Dianne Thompson as chair and director, City AM reported. The fund says a long turnaround needs a chair with years left in the role, whatever her record.

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Illustration accompanying Sanderson investor with a 14% stake seeks a chair who can stay through a long turnaround
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Sanderson swung from a £14m loss to a £3m pre-tax profit Sanderson Design Group pre-tax result in £m, previous year versus the year to January; a loss is shown as a negative value.

Two-bar chart: Sanderson's pre-tax result went from a £14m loss in the previous year to a £3m pre-tax profit in the year to January, under chief executive Lisa Montague.

Sanderson swung from a £14m loss to a £3m pre-tax profit
MeasureValueAs ofClaim
Previous year−14 £m pre-tax11
Year to January3 £m pre-tax11

What happened

  • Sanderson, run by chief executive Lisa Montague, made a £3m pre-tax profit in the year to January after a £14m loss the year before.
  • LBV has criticised the board for approving Montague's £729,000 pay package for this year.
  • Shareholders have also objected to the recent move to Voysey House, a Grade II-listed building in Chiswick, west London, on the company's old factory site.
  • A number of other shareholders in the Aim-listed company told City AM they support LBV's proposals.

Why it matters

  • decision Sanderson's board has to choose between defending its chair on the strength of a profit recovery and conceding that the next stage needs someone with years ahead in the role.
  • exposure A new chair arriving with LBV's mandate would inherit a pay settlement the current board approved, leaving Montague's package the first decision open to review.
  • precedent If it works here, a tenure test that leaves the incumbent's record unchallenged gives minority investors in other small listed companies a template for replacing a chair.
  • constraint Half-year results due Monday will be read as evidence in the chair dispute, so the board cannot present them only as an update on Montague's turnaround.

LBV's letter separates what a chair has done from how long she has left to do more. The fund told Sanderson last month that its campaign was "by no means an indictment on Dame Thompson's career or character, both of which are incredibly distinguished" [3]. The indictment, it said, was of "the current state of the company", which needs a chairman "with the mandate and sufficient tenure ahead of him or her to lead a sustained period of change" [4]. The campaign accuses the group of drifting towards "inaction and inertia" [5]. City AM's report does not say how long Thompson, a former National Lottery boss [2], has chaired Sanderson or when her term ends.

The board's best answer is in its accounts. Under chief executive Lisa Montague, pre-tax profit improved by £17m in a year [17]. A director defending Thompson would say the sustained change LBV wants is already under way. Paul Hawkins, an asset manager with a personal stake in the company, said the executives "are being paid extremely well to repair the profitability that has fallen so considerably under their watch" [13]. Shareholders also told City AM that licensing revenue, which grew by a third to £9m, is masking wider underperformance [10].

Hawkins also rejected the board's explanation for weak trading. Sanderson's "only excuse for poor performance always seems to come back to difficult economic conditions," he said [8]. "That's simply not good enough, especially when your biggest competitor in Colefax is performing well." [9] Shareholders said Sanderson has been slow to expand in the US, where Colefax has reported an "exceptionally strong sales performance" [14]. A person close to Sanderson's management said overseas markets and licensing "alone will not resolve Sanderson's problems" [16].

Pay is where the chair's responsibility is most direct, because the package was a board decision [12]. Montague's pay and the finance chief's together come to 36 per cent of group profit [12]. Measured against the £3m pre-tax figure [11], the pair cost about £1.1m [18]. "The Chair doesn't appear to have a credible answer as to why this is justified," Hawkins said [13].

The office move has the least agreement behind it. One shareholder close to senior management called Voysey House a "vanity project" and said: "Everyone in the industry is at Chelsea Harbour, but Sanderson, at a time of extremely poor performance, decided to relocate to Voysey House." [20] Rhys Summerton, founder of Milkwood Capital, said the upgrades were "lavishly done" but that it makes sense for Sanderson to be at its "historical home" [21]. A company spokesperson said the building is "central to unlocking the commercial value of our 75,000-piece archive" [22].

We think the tenure argument is the stronger half of LBV's case. The relocation has already happened [19], so the complaint about it concerns money already spent. The chair question covers the years of turnaround still ahead. Summerton said Milkwood backs LBV because Sanderson needs more oversight [15]. "The governance that you see at Sanderson is very similar to the governance that you see at a lot of other smaller companies," he said [15].

What to watch

  • Whether Monday's half-year results show profit growth outside licensing income, which would test the shareholders' claim that licensing masks weaker trading.
  • Whether LBV moves from its letter to a formal resolution to remove Thompson, and whether the board sets out a succession timetable for the chair.

Clarity's read

What the record supports and how the coverage leans. The claims behind it follow.

Reality

Evidence45
Adoption
Insufficient
Hype gap+15
Incentives70
Confidence50
Why these scores

Claim ledger

Ranked by verification strength, evidence, and original report placement.

  1. [1]

    LBV Asset Management, which owns about 14 per cent of Sanderson Design Group, is pushing for Dame Dianne Thompson to be removed as a director and chair.

    ReportedSupportedSource: City AMView cited source
  2. [2]

    Dame Dianne Thompson is a former National Lottery boss.

    ReportedSupportedSource: City AMView cited source
  3. [3]

    "This is by no means an indictment on Dame Thompson's career or character, both of which are incredibly distinguished," LBV told Sanderson last month.

    ReportedSupportedSource: LBV Asset Management, via City AMView cited source

Sources

1 independent publisher whose own reporting we read for this story.

  1. cityam.com

    1 article · October 9, 2026

    Investor pressure mounts on boss of King’s favourite interior designer

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